Applications open for Dance UK mentoring schemes

Posted on June 1, 2015

Applications are now open for Dance UK’s dancers’ and dance teaching mentoring schemes for 2015 to 16. This professional development opportunity is aimed at dancers and dance teachers who have been identified by their peers as future leaders.

The 2015 Dancers’ Mentoring Programme offers 20 dancers the chance to prepare for the future beyond or alongside their performing careers, with the support of a paid mentor. Applicants must be independent dancers with Dance UK membership, or dancers who work for Dance UK company members, with a minimum of eight years professional dancing experience.

Many of the dancers who have taken part in this programme have now moved into leadership positions or taken on leadership responsibilities within their current roles. Choreographer Avatara Ayuso, who took part in the 2013 to 14 programme, says: “I gained another perspective on how to approach decision-making in the dance sector, advice from an expert leader and time with a very busy director, which otherwise would have been impossible.”

Dance UK’s 2015 Dance Teaching Mentoring Programme will give 20 dance teachers the opportunity to develop leadership skills, expand dance industry knowledge and build contacts within professional dance companies, local dance organisations and across the education sector. As well as a paid mentor, each teacher will receive a bursary to cover travel and meeting expenses and a funded connection with a leading local dance organisation of their choice.

The programme is aimed at teachers working in primary or secondary schools, in community settings, in private dance schools who are qualified through awarding bodies such as the RAD, ISTD, IDTA, BBO, UKA, BATD and others, in higher education or vocational training. It is also open to freelance dance artists who teach as part of their portfolio careers. Applicants must be Dance UK or NDTA members and must have at least five years’ professional dance teaching experience. The deadline for applications is 5pm on June 30, 2015. For more information, visit the Dance UK website.

To apply for either mentoring programme, the dancer or dance teacher must first be nominated by a peer or colleague who has identified them as having potential to be a future sector leader.

Picture: Estela Merlos and Stefano Rosato in a work by Patricia Okenwa. Photograph: Stephen Wright

Zoë was born in Edinburgh, and saw her first dance performances at the Festival there. She is the dance critic of The Independent, and has also written for The Independent on Sunday, The Scotsman and Dancing Times. In 2002, she received her doctorate from the University of York for a thesis on “Nationhood and epic romance: Ariosto, Sidney, Spenser”. She is the author of The Royal Ballet: 75 Years and The Ballet Lover’s Companion.